Intersections - Nguyen Dang Binh
Intersections - Nguyen Dang Binh
Intersections - Nguyen Dang Binh
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Mark Ballora<br />
Singularity<br />
Interactive music for performer and computer<br />
ARTIST STATEMENT<br />
The music I most admire embodies mythos as the Greeks meant it.<br />
Contrary to our current parlance, in which the word “myth” means<br />
“something untrue,” mythos seeks to tap into powerful truths about<br />
our world.<br />
Singularity grew out of extended reflection that came to me after<br />
reading Stephen Hawking’s descriptions of black holes. I was taken<br />
with his descriptions of how they absorb and recycle the universe’s<br />
matter and I started comparing black holes to mythical traditions<br />
that explore the nature of birth, death, and rebirth; added to the mix<br />
was the tension inherent in the human character between the need<br />
for peace and freedom on the one hand, and the need for structure<br />
and companionship on the other. The piece attempts to come to a<br />
mythic understanding of how these forces may interact. The use of<br />
live audio processing is meant to take the sounds of a virtuoso flute<br />
performance and broaden it, suggesting a broader perceptual scope<br />
than the immediately tangible, a presence in the context of a reality<br />
that contains the physical/earth plus much more.<br />
CONTACT<br />
Electronic Art and Animation Catalog Art Gallery Electronically Mediated Performances<br />
COLLABORATORS<br />
Mark Ballora<br />
Agatha Jui-Chih Wang, flutist<br />
Penn. State University<br />
agathawang@adelphia.net<br />
School of Music<br />
233 Music Building I<br />
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-1901<br />
USA<br />
ballora@psu.edu<br />
www.music.psu.edu/Faculty%20Pages/Ballora<br />
TECHNICAl STATEMENT<br />
A flute microphone delivers an audio signal of the performance<br />
into an audio converter, which digitizes the signal and allows the<br />
computer to manipulate the signal. The software synthesis program<br />
SuperCollider (www.audiosynth.com) has been programmed<br />
to apply a set of preset “states” to the audio that are activated by<br />
simple keystrokes on the computer keyboard. A variety of processing<br />
is done to the flute, adding echoes, reverberation, or distortion. A<br />
looping function sends audio to a buffer and plays it repeatedly. The<br />
software also produces algorithmically generated electroacoustic<br />
textures. Thus, the sound of the flute performance is expanded and<br />
placed in a variety of sonic contexts. The 43-tone Just scale devised<br />
by Harry Partch is explored in many of the textures, with its qualitative<br />
subtleties complementing the ethereal nature of much of the<br />
audio processing.